FAQs

Why should I donate via Impact Go?

Because you want to improve two lives at once: the life of a mother and her child.
Because you want to make sure that your donation arrives exactly where it is most needed. You’ll get short notifications to let you track the whereabouts of it.
Because you want to make a big impact with just one click on your smartphone.
Because you want to have a new experience.

Who am I supporting with my donation?

Your donation is going to provide insurance coverage for a low income individual in Africa. We work in close cooperation with African start-ups to ensure that these persons receive an insurance ID via text message on their cellphones. This ID grants them access to private hospitals, health services and important medical treatment. Public hospitals often lack the right staff, modern medical technologies and drugs, while private ones are too expensive for the majority of low income individuals. With your help we want to change this. Learn more here about the workflow behind your donation.

Do people have cellphones in Africa?

Yes, people have cellphones in Africa. Not everybody has a smartphones, but a large part of the population has cellphones. In 2017 75% of Africa’s population owned a cellphone. This share will reach around 85% in 2025. This means that two in three people in Africa have a cell phone and that this share is growing rapidly. In particular, the availability of mobile phones in rural parts of Africa enables Impact Go to reach those people who can not afford hospital visits to cities, but rely on the expensive private clinics in the country. Learn more in this blog post by Claudia Brandian.

How can I make sure that my contribution arrives for what I intended it for?

Impact Go’s philosophy is based on the belief that new technologies are the key to a maximum transparency. We want to enable supporters of our program to track the whereabouts of their donation all the way from their wallet to our African start-up partners.

You’ll receive a short notification at each of the following steps: 1. Directly after you’ve made your micro-donation; 2. after we’ve sent your contribution together with others from Austria to our African partner start-ups and 3. after they’ve signed up the individual beneficiary to the insurance coverage

Why health and accidental insurance?

We believe that everyone should be entitled to medical and health services. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3 includes the effort to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio, end preventable deaths of newborns, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and reduce premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases. Impact Go wants to contribute to reach these targets by providing more people with high quality medicine and health services.

In Africa, it is exactly the same with hospitals as it is in Europe: the public hospitals are all located in the larger cities. In Africa’s rural areas, where the majority of the poorer population lives, there are mainly private clinics available only to those who either pay higher sums or have private insurance. Impact Go focuses on these rural populations that need it the most. They often can not afford expensive journeys to public hospitals in the cities. On top these public hospitals don’t offer quality health care anyway. Private clinics can offer qualified staff and standardized medicine. Learn more here about Tanzania’s healthcare system.

Who are Impact Go’s partner startups?

Jamii Africa is Impact Go’s first partner startup. In Africa people need to have a bank account in order to get an insurance coverage. Many people do not have such one and therefore remain uninsured. Mobile money payment systems, such as m-Pesa, are extensively used in East Africa and offer a mobile wallet for cellphone users. Startups like Jamii Africa now enable the unbanked to get an insurance coverage by paying via this mobile wallet. The majority of individuals in developing markets around East Africa do not fully understand and value the benefits of insurance. With your contribution you enable them to test an insurance coverage for three months for free. Learn more about our partnerships with startups from Africa in this blog article by Valentin Schipfer.

How do you select people in need in Africa?

Our Tanzania partner Jamii Africa cooperates with the NGOs Jhpiego (www.jhpiego.org) and the Elisabeth Glaser Foundation (www.pedaids.org). Jhpiego has ongoing contact with pregnant women from precarious rural households and the Elisabeth Glaser Foundation with AIDS orphans. These two NGOs manage the contact details of their beneficiaries, who then receive the donated insurance via SMS. Learn more here about the workflow behind your donation.

Can I choose the person, which I want to support by myself?

Unfortunately, Impact Go can not offer this. On the one hand, it is technologically not feasible for us to fulfill this wish. On the other hand, the privacy of the beneficiaries is of great concern to us, not least because Impact Go is about health care – a very sensitive issue in terms of privacy.

Really? € 5,-(tbc) will be enough to provide insurance cover for an individual for 3 months?

It costs € 3,- in order to get a 3 month insurance coverage for one person. Impact Go needs € 2,- to cover the operational costs of our app. These costs include the payment service providers, which funnel your donation (via credit cards, Sofort Überweisung, paypal) from your pocket to Impact Go ; the international money transfers from Austria to Africa; the IT-infrastructure (Amazon Webservices) as well as marketing expenditures. Impact Go does not make a profit from your donation.

Does my donation directly go to Africa?

Yes, your donation directly goes to Africa. With our 3-Step Notification Flow you can keep track of the whereabouts of your contribution from your pocket to our African start-up partners. In order to be as efficient as possible we will consolidate donations before making transfers to our partners.

How do low income people get donated insurance coverage?

Our partner start-ups have trained community workers of local NGOs, who reach out to low income target groups and support them to sign-up for the donated insurance coverage.

Why Tanzania?

Impact Go found its partner organization in Tanzania during scouting for start-ups in Africa. Tanzania has around 55 million inhabitants. Around 80% have a cell phone, but only approxiamtely 2% have accident or health insurance coverage. On the one hand, this low insurance rate is a big problem because many people can not afford quality health care. On the other hand, the high mobile penetration is a great opportunity to reach out to these people. Our start-up partner Jamii Africa has developed technologies to give them access to health care services via text messages. Impact Go wants to make use of this opportunity. With your help we want to support as many people as possible in Tanzania. Here you can learn more about our cooperation with start-ups in Africa.

What does my donated insurance cover?

Your contribution enables people to get treatment and medication in private hospitals. Private hospitals usually charge high fees, while public hospitals lack high quality medicine, qualified staff and essential medical technology. With your donations our beneficiaries will be able to access insurance coverage access to private hospitals within 78 hours after having received their SMS with the insurance ID.

How does Impact Go generate income?

Our present team consists of enthusiastic volunteers. Everybody contributes with pro-bono work, skills and knowledge. We want to reach Impact Go’s social mission: ensuring good health and wellbeing for all. Revenues through donors are always welcome. If you want to actively contribute and put your skills to good use at an international first mover, then send us an email via our contact form and tell us why you want to join our team.

Where did the idea for Impact Go originate from?

In 2016 a newspaper article inspired Valentin to kick-off some research into startups in Africa. He soon initiated the idea of Impact Go. Since then a team of dedicated and innovative people have been developing the product. Our philosophy is based on the belief that new technologies and close intercontinental cooperation with local startups can contribute to reach the third Sustainable Development Goal: ensuring good health and wellbeing for all. Learn more in this blog article or this video interview about the background of Impact Go.

Can I give monthly?

At the moment you can support one person at a time. We are working on a solution which will allow you to give regularly more conveniently.

How do I know my financial information is protected?

Your security is of utmost importance to us. Our web-app is based on modern security standards and we take your security and privacy very seriously, ensuring that your payment information is safe. We do not save any payment information. All payment data is processed by our partner Stripe and Sofort Überweisung. Our infrastructure is served via HTTPS, so that your device only communicates with our server over a secure channel. Your financial information is managed securely on our behalf by Stripe and Sofort Überweisung and globally trusted (Level 1 DSS PCI compliant) payments companies.
The app does not retrieve any additional data. All communication is end-to-end encoded (SHA-256 with RSA-encryption). Unintentional donations will be returned immediately. Should you have a question about your online payment, please contact us via our contact form.

Can I get more information about my beneficiary?

Our 3-Steps-Notifications-Flow provides you with information, where exactly you are supporting somebody. Due to data privacy and protection, we apologize for not sharing any further personally identifiable information of the beneficiaries.

I have another question

In case you have other question, please feel free to send us an email via our contact form. We will endeavour to reply as soon as possible. As we are all working as volunteers, we apologize for any possible delays that might occur. If we get multiple questions relating to the same topic, we will update our FAQs accordingly and include a clear response here.